Cancer Research UK and CRT teams up with Abcodia for cancer tests

Cancer Research UK and CRT are teaming up with Abcodia to develop tests to help ensure an early diagnosis of cancer.

The partnership will focus on biomarkers to detect cancers before patients develop symptoms, with the work focussing on diseases which currently have limited screening tests available, including non-small cell lung cancer.

By detecting cancer earlier, doctors will have a better chance of treating it effectively, before it develops and spreads. Furthermore, by identifying patients at an early stage, pharmaceutical communities will have the ability to select patients to help develop a new generation of anti-cancer medicines.

The partnership will merge Cancer Research UK’s extensive clinical oncology and scientific network with Abcodia’s prowess in the longitudinal profiling of biomarkers, while offering exclusive access to one of the world’s biggest collections of serum samples.

Cancer Research UK, CRT and Abcodia will aim to form partnerships in the UK and internationally with academic and commercial organisations boasting premier biomarker technology to discover, validate and develop markers further.

The alliance is focussing on finding markers that may be expressed in serum, such as proteins, microRNAs, exosomes, autoantibodies and DNA methylation.

Dr Harpal Kumar, Cancer Research UK’s chief executive, said: “Earlier detection of cancer remains a huge challenge but also a tremendous opportunity. We know that for most types of cancer, the earlier we detect them, the greater the chance of being able to treat them effectively and successfully. Furthermore, treating earlier stage disease is usually associated with fewer side effects from treatment for our patient.

“The scope and scale of this alliance, aimed at developing new tests for a range of cancers at their earliest stage, before symptoms develop, is very exciting.”

He went on to say that the expertise gathered in this partnership will provide a great opportunity to accelerate vital biomarker research.